Assange faces US extradition after arrest at Ecuadorian embassy

Julian Assange is facing extradition to the United States and up to five years in prison after he was forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, bringing an extraordinary seven-year diplomatic stalemate to an end, The Guardian reports.

Assange, an Australian citizen, will receive consular assistance on Friday but won’t be given any “special treatment”, the country’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, said. The country’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said officials had been advised that Britain would not agree to extradition if an individual would face the death penalty. “Australia is completely opposed to the death penalty and that is a bipartisan position,” she said. “The matter for the extradition itself is one between the United States and the United Kingdom.”

After 2,487 days in the embassy, the 47-year-old was arrested after Ecuador revoked his political asylum and invited Metropolitan police officers inside their Knightsbridge premises, where he has stayed since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations which Assange has always denied.

Later on Thursday, he was found guilty of failing to surrender to the court and faces up to 12 months in a British prison.